Academic Bachelor degree on Lemmens campus, Leuven

Academic bachelor degree on Lemmens campus, Leuven

In the Drama degree, you will learn to create and perform texts based on strong technical and theoretical knowledge. You will enjoy a broad and multifaceted training programme that prepares you for an artistic career on the stage or in the world of TV and cinema.

You will not only be trained as an artist who can expertly stage and perform a text, but also an artist with a distinctive voice in the performing arts world.

OPEK, a lab where you experience performing arts from the inside

As well as its classrooms, rehearsal and theatre spaces located on the Lemmens campus, the Drama degree has its own rehearsal studio in OPEK on the Vaartkom in Leuven. The Public Warehouse of the Arts (Openbaar Entrepot der Kunsten – OPEK) is a place where theatre makers, visual artists and drama students meet and engage in their artistic practice. Students use the studio as a classroom, but also as a free space in which they can develop their own artistic path. The Drama degree is thus a laboratory where you will work in close proximity with other performing arts partners. This unique collaboration with other performing arts organisations often offers students their first step into the profession.

Fascinating experience via research projects

During their bachelor degree, students can already become involved in research projects, taking them to the farthest corners of the country and even abroad. Two of our second year Drama students recently went to Poland as part of ‘The art of loss’ research project. This included a visit to Krakow where they studied and mapped the legacy and inspiration of Tadeusz Kantor. The first visit was followed by further research and training sessions led by Kantor’s artistic successors. This research project resulted in a theatre piece.

About the curriculum

In the Drama degree, you will learn to create and perform texts based on strong technical and theoretical knowledge. You will enjoy a broad and multifaceted training programme that prepares you for an artistic career on the stage or in the world of TV and cinema. You will not only be trained as an artist who can expertly stage and perform a text, but also an artist with a distinctive voice in the performing arts world.

Text, in the broadest sense of the word, is the foundation of our training. Learning how to fathom, interpret and create a text is just as important as its performance and staging. During text analysis, you will learn to investigate text with respect to content. In your text training, you will learn how to communicate this content. In practical and performance modules, you will learn how to use that knowledge to communicate the meaning to an audience.

You will also learn how to ‘create text’. This is about more than writing because staging, music and concept development are also addressed. As a result, you will become more than an interpreter or writer of text. You will become a creator who can translate your own ideas, viewpoints and experiences into a unique performance in a contemporary style.

The training itself is phased and modular. Assignments steadily increase in complexity and you gradually become more and more responsible for your own artistic discourse. The accent also shifts: in the beginning, the emphasis lies on performing, deepening and continuity. Afterwards, the focus moves to creating and developing an individual style and vision.

Technique and theory are fundamental to your artistic development

During your training, tradecraft and a good technical and theoretical basis are the necessary conditions of your artistic development. You will learn how to use your body, voice and speech optimally. Courses such as literature and theatre history, text analysis and dramaturgy will provide insights that can be applied in closely related practical courses.

Dutch is the official language of instruction. Consequently our programme is completely organized in Dutch. The required level of Dutch to study at Drama is level B2. This can be proved in various ways, such as the ITNA-certificate, the PTHO or PAT-certificate (offered worldwide), or the NT2 certificate. The following certificates are recognized by the university college:

A proof that the applicant has successfully followed a Dutch-language study programme of at least one year, either at an institute of Higher Education or a Secondary School, or successfully completed at least 54 ECTS credits in a Dutch taught higher education degree programme.

a Dutch language certificate that is recognized by the Dutch language (Nederlandse Taalunie) and that grants access to higher education.

language certificate Level 5 of the ILT- Catholic University of Leuven